Sod Poodles v Travelers May 28, 2024
Dickey-Stephens Park pregame May 28, 2024
The Arkansas Travelers (AA Mariners) are back home after 6 games in Corpus Christi facing the Hooks (AA Astros). The Travs rolled taking 4 of 6 games, including a 17-4 blowout this past Friday. After a travel day off the Travs are back at it for a 12 game home stand over 13 days. I remember stretches like this from when I worked in baseball, it can be exhausting for the players, staff, and even the fans.
Fortunately the weather in Arkansas is still reasonable and temps for the game last night were actually comfortable. The Travs start the home stand with 6 games against the Amarillo Sod Poodles and then the Springfield Cardinals come to town for 6.
Before I recap last nights game there are two key Travs transactions to share. The first is Tyler Locklear received a much deserved promotion to AAA for the Mariners. I’ve written about Locklear several times this season and if you are following you know that I believe in his bat and approach. Being a RH First Base prospect is no easy path though, it requires hitting to be a very strong carrying tool.
The Mariners are not that far removed from giving another RH First Base prospect a sizable contract and seeing him struggle through injury and poor performance before leaving the organization. I’m talking about Evan White, a player I saw a lot in the minors and in the AFL and thought would fair better than he has. White was fairly elite defensively but offensively I see a stronger profile in Locklear. The approach is much better and I believe Locklear is developing more power as well.
Locklear’s AA slash was .291/30/8/26/4 with a .401 OBP, .532 slug and a 154 wRC+. He also walked 12% of the time, while striking out 26%. The K rate needs to get back down to the 20% range and that will be a key test for him at AAA. It was time for the promotion and I love seeing the Mariners do this. While I don’t expect Locklear to see big league action this year it’s not out of the realm of possibility given team needs, injuries, etc.
The other piece of news is that a week ago the Mariners also promoted Ben Williamson from High A to the Travs in AA. Williamson is a 23yo third baseman drafted in the 2nd rd (#57) last year. He’s out of William & Mary where he was a regular all 4 years, including the covid shortened 2020. Williamson’s senior season jumped his draft rank significantly as he posted a .391 average with an outstanding .513 OBP. The guy walked 40 times against only 22 strikeouts! Williamson had also faired well in several seasons of wood bat summer leagues during his college years.
So far in his short pro career Williamson is hitting for average and walking over 10% of the time. While the home run power has not yet arrived he is hitting the gaps with 14 doubles on the year. In just 8 games at AA Williamson is hitting .324 with a .410 OBP and a .500 slug…solid start.
For the Travelers this changes their lineup a bit. Harry Ford and Cole Young remain at the top and Williamson is now slotting in 3rd behind them, more or less in the place of Locklear. It’s still a top heavy lineup and they do lose some power with the change.
On to the game and a recap of key prospect observations:
Harry Ford had a quiet night, going 0 for 4 with 1 K. Even on an 0 for 9 slide Ford is hitting .319 since Apr 20th. He’s getting it done at the top of the lineup scoring 25 runs over that 30 game stretch and also driving in 20. In the same window Ford has also walked 23 times and stolen 9 bases against 0 caught stealing.
Cole Young went 2 for 4 on the night with a home run and a stolen base. Young’s power is pull side and he tapped into it in the 4th with a deep shot to RF that easily cleared the fence. It was off a bender and he turned on it nicely. I have to remind myself that Young is only 20 years old, which is young for AA. The Mariners have been fairly aggressive with his assignments. He’s performed well and has played solid D primarily at SS.
This was my first live look at Ben Williamson, he’s not a player I had keyed in on during the 2023 draft. This home stand should give me the opportunity to see him play quite a few games and hopefully grab some interesting video I can share.
For the Sod Poodles, I focused on Ivan Melendez and A.J. Vukovich. I was also curious to see Kristian Robinson, a once highly thought of prospect that has fallen off of most radars.
I’ve seen Melendez before, so this wasn’t my first look. He comes to pro ball with big time college pedigree winning the 2022 Golden Spikes award while at Texas. Hitting .387 with 32 homers and 94 RBI earns you that type of attention.
What I have seen so far is a corner infielder (likely 1B only) with legit power that he can reach in game. That said, this is a big guy that doesn’t move particularly well and is striking out in the 30% range. He’s now repeating AA and at 24yo is older than many at the level. It’s likely that Melendez will see big league action at some point but it’s hard to see an impact player with his current profile.
Next up is A.J. Vukovich, a RH outfielder who has played some infield corner. He is repeating AA and I also caught a few of his games in the AFL last year. So I have seen him play quite a few games. Vukovich is a former 4th rd pick going #119 overall in the 2020 draft out of high school. Offensively he’s the sort of player that does most things well enough but doesn’t necessarily have a stand out skill.
Vukovich jumped on prospect radars last year as he delivered a .263/84/24/96/20 slash. His K rate remained high at 28% and I believe that and other considerations are the reason the DBacks have him repeating AA. So far this year the K rate is up a tick at 30% and his counting stats are noticeably down. This is not a prospect profile that I look for and Vukovich will need to make further adjustments if he’s going to eventually have any impact at the big league level.
I mentioned OF Kristian Robinson earlier. If you are a prospect follower you know the name. He was once high on many industry lists and has since fallen hard. Both on and off the field.
The Sod Poodles had Robinson batting 9th, so that says a lot in and of itself. What I saw in his 4 at bats is a tall player with a long swing and lacking any real approach at the plate. He was overmatched and went 0 for 4 on the game with 2 K’s. After 117 AA at bats Robinson is striking out close to 40% of the time with little production. It’s hard to see things getting much better given the approach and other considerations.
My last note is on Sod Poodles SP Billy Corcoran. While he wasn’t on my radar coming in I will try to keep an eye on him moving forward. It was a strong outing for Corcoran as he went six innings giving up just the one home run to Cole Young. He added 6 K’s and 1 BB throwing 84 pitches on the night. Corcoran has logged 120 innings since turning pro and has been reasonably effective, showing command and the ability to strike guys out.
I should be back at the park tonight. While Amarillo hasn’t announced it’s SP for the game the Travs have Logan Evans on the bump. He’s been excellent so far this year and I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch again.
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